Press head constuction

ABSTRACT

1. FOR USE IN AN INDUSTRIAL SCISSOR-TYPE GARMENT PRESS, AN ELECTRICALLY HEATED HEAD HAVING A FLUID TIGHT CHAMBER AND OPENINGS THEREFROM FOR DISCHARGING LIVE STEAM AND/OR FOR DRAWING VACUUM, THE HEAD HAVING A PRESS FACE ELEMENT FORMED FROM A PAIR OF ADJACENT PLATES OF HIGHLY CONDUCTIVE MATERIAL, SUCH AS ALUMINUM, THE ENTIRE PERIPHERAL EDGE OF THE PLATES BEING WELDED TOGETHER, THE ADJACENT FACES OF THE PLATES BEING FLUSH EXCEPT FOR CHANNELS IN ONE PLATE THAT DEFINE WITH THE OPPOSITE PLATE THE CHAMBER WHERE THE OPENINGS ARE PROVIDED THROUGH THE PRESS FACE PLATE FROM THE CHANNELS, A FITTING CONNECTING THROUGH THE BACKUP PLATE AND A MOUNTING PLATE SECURED TO THE THE BACKUP PLATE AND A MOUNTING PLATE SECURED TO THE SPACERS, ELONGATED ELECTRIC STRIP HEATING ELEMENT FITTED BETWEEN THE BACKUP AND MOUNTING PLATES AND THE SPACERS, BOLTS THREADED IN THE MOUNTING PLATE URGING THE HEATING ELEMENTS AGAINST THE BACKUP PLATE, AND TAPS IN THE MOUNTING PLATE FOR SECURING THE HEAD RELATIVE TO THE PRESS.   D R A W I N G

Feb. 13 W73 R. M. HANSON 3,715,839

PRES 8 HEAD CONSTRUCT ION Filed Sept. 7, 1971 J i v o w E. 5 46 w mfw QI\\) 4 50 5 H8 M 5) U U 48 z 17 I INVENTOR:

Cy RlCHARD M. HANSON ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,715,819 PRESS HEAD CONSTRUCTION Richard M. Hanson, Salt Lake City, Utah, assignor to McGraw-Edison Company, Elgin, Ill. Filed Sept. 7, 1971, Ser. No. 178,284 Int. Cl. D06f 71/34 US. CI. 38-16 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE For use in an industrial scissor-type garment press, an electrically heated head having a fluid tight chamber and openings therefrom for discharging live steam and/or for drawing vacuum, the head having a press face element formed from a pair of adjacent plates of highly conductive material, such as aluminum, the entire peripheral edge of the plates being welded together, the adjacent faces of the plates being flush except for channels in one plate that define with the opposite plate the chamber where the openings are provided through the press face plate from the channels, a fitting connection through the backup plate to the steam channels, spacers secured to the backup plate and a mounting plate secured to the spacers, elongated electric strip heating elements fitted between the backup and mounting plates and the spacers, bolts threaded in the mounting plate urging the heating elements against the backup plate, and taps in the mounting plate for securing the head relative to the press.

In the garment pressing art, it is common to have a scissor type press where adjacent heated heads are disposed with generally complementary surfaces between which an article is pressed. The garment can be initially conditioned with steam to make its fibers pliable and high mechanical pressure applied between the press heads removes wrinkles from the properly pressed garments. Since synthetic materials can be set with permanent press characteristics at high temperatures, such as 350 to 550 F., garment manufacturers use and/or Want press heads that can be heated to such temperatures and electrical- 1y heated press heads commonly are used in these applications. To condition the garment with steam, a cham ber in the head and distribution openings from the chamber generally spaced over the entire press face provide for discharge against the garment. Uniform surface temperatures over the entire press face and little temperature drop during pressing or rapid recovery after pressing are required operating characteristics of the head; and the head must be easy and economical to fabricate and durable in use.

This invention relates to and an object of this invention is to provide a press head having a fluid tight chamber and distribution openings thereto on the press face, and where the head can be readily and economically fabricated, has improved temperature distribution, and has high commercial acceptance.

A more specific feature of this invention is a press head face element construction comprised of a press face plate and backup plate each of a highly conductive material, such as aluminum, having flush adjacent faces except for a network of grooves milled in one face that defines with the adjacent face the chamber having a plurality of passages that communicate with the openings in the press face plate. The plates are secured together as by welding at spaced locations throughout the entire head area and further the entire periphery of the two plates is secured together in a fluid tight manner as by a continuous weld. Spacer bars are secured, as by welding, to the backup plate and a mounting plate is secured, again as by welding, to the spacer bars, leaving elongated channels or slots between the spacer bars and the backup and mounting plates. An elongated electric strip heating element is fitted in each channel or slot and bolts threaded through the mounting plate are tightened against each heating element to mechanically establish a flush highly effective heat transfer with the backup plate which in turn uniformly transmits the heat over the entire press head.

This invention will be more fully understood and appreciated after referring to the following specification, the accompanying drawing forming a part thereof, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a press head formed according to the subject invention, where various parts of the press head are broken away to disclose more clearly the structure of the head;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are sectional views as seen generally from lines 2-2 and 33, respectively in FIG. I, showing particular details of the head construction;

FIG. 4 is a plan type development view of the particular groove network used on the face of the backup plate according to the subject invention; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a typical garment press on which the subject head construction can be used.

Referring first to FIG. 5, a press 10 of a conventional scissor type is shown where a base 12 mounts thereon a table 14 and a stationary press head 16 is disposed above the table on post 17. An arm 18 is ivotally mounted on pin 20 from the base 12 and supports a head 22 which can be moved against the lower press head 16'; thus accordingly upper head face 24 is complementary to the lower head face 26. A padded cover typically overlies the press face of the lower head to cushion hard objects such as buttons, zippers, or the like that may be placed thereon, while the press face of the upper head is typically polished and of a hardened metallic material and frequently has little or no padding.

It is to be understood that means are provided in the typical press to heat the heads 16 and 22 and to move the arm 18 about the pivot so that the upper head 22 can be brought into contact against the lower head 16. Typically discharge openings 28 are provided in the head where live steam can be discharged from the head and/or where frequently a vacuum can be drawn in the head. As noted, steam discharge conditions the garment and vacuum helps drive the steam through the garment as Well as assists in rapid drying of the garment. Lines 29 to the press are typically connected to specific chambers in one or both of the heads for the steam and/or vacuum, as will be noted in detail hereinafter.

The head construction is disclosed in FIGS. 1-4 and includes a press element or member 30 which has the outside face milled or otherwise polished smooth to act as the press face (28 shown here for the upper head that cooperates directly against the garment). Attached on the back side of the press member 30 (the side opposite from the press face) is a mounting plate 34 where the mounting plate in turn has spaced taps 36 to which bolts 38 can be secured to mount the head relative to press frame post 17 or arm 18. Normally, there are four such spaced taps but only two are shown since the other two are on that structure broken away in the drawing. A plurality of elongated electric strip heating elements 40 are located between the mounting plate 34 and the press member 30 and the same are by bolts 68 held in effective heat transfer contact against the back side of the press member. This provides that output from the energized heating elements is transferred to the process member for heating the press face. A cover 42 overlies the mounting plate 34 and insulation (not shown) can be located between the cover and press head structure if such is desired to keep the cover at a reasonably cool temperature.

The press member 30 is actually formed of two plates including a face plate 44 and a backup plate 46. Each of these plates 44 and 46 is of aluminum or other relatively light weight and high conductive material and further is typically of the order of A to /2" thick.

In the construction shown, the backup plate 46 (FIG. 4) has a network of grooves or channels 48 and 5t) spaced at intervals over approximately the entire area of the plate. The cross grooves 48 are typically on 1%" to 1 /2 centers and are approximately /s" to A" deep and /3" to /2" wide, and the main channel 50 is approximately the same depth but A" to 1 /2" wide. The grooves can be milled in the face quite economically, particularly since the aluminum material is relatively soft in nature, while the remaining land area of the face is maintained smooth and uniformly curved.

The face plate 44 has the discharge openings 28 formed therein where the pattern of the openings is such as to line up with the underlying grooves 48 or 50 formed in the backup plate, and the openings can be accordingly on 1% to 1 /2" centers and possibly between ,4 and & in diameter.

The adjacent faces of the plates, namely the back side on the face plate 44 and the front side on the backup plate 46, other than in the area where the grooves might be formed, are exactly complementary and flush with one another so that substantial contact is maintained between the plates in all areas other than where the grooves exist. The two plates are welded together then in at least some of these full face contact areas, at for example to places or approximately 3" to 5" spacings and with each weld area being approximately 4" and /2" on one side by 1" and 1%" on the other side. These weld areas are typically shown at 56. Moreover, the entire periphery as indicated at 58 between the plates 44 and 46 is welded or seamed so that the channels or grooves define a liquid tight chamber having an outlet only at the discharge openings 28.

A fitting connection 60 is made to the defined chamber,

being threaded into an opening in the backup plate 46 and extended through enlarged opening (not shown) in the mounting plate and the cover 42 adapted for connection to the line 29. A deflector piece 64 is preferably secured in underlying relation to the fitting where the piece is of a hard durable material such as stainless steel, to minimize wear from high velocity steam feed through the fitting of the relatively soft aluminum plates.

The press element therefore being between /2" and 1" thick, and formed of aluminum, is highly effective in distributing the heat from the heating elements uniformly over the press face while further has sufiicient mass to minimize temperature swings upon press contact with a cool garment during pressing.

Welded to the backup plate 46 is a plurality of elongated spacer bars 66 and these bars extend almost the entire length of the mounting plate 34, and the mounting plate is in turn welded to the spacer bars. The heating elements 40 as mentioned fit within the tubular openings or slots 67 between the spacers 66 and the mounting and backup plates 34 and 46 respectively. Bolts 68 threaded into appropriate taps in the mounting plate are tightened against each heating element to urge it into good heat conductive flush contact with the backup plate 46. Terminals 70 on the heating elements are connected by conductors 72, and the conductors are in turn connected in an 4 appropriate power circuit through on-off and thermostatic switches (not shown).

The disclosed head construction has several advantages, one of which is the easy fabrication of the multiple press plates 44 and 46 including forming the grooves in one of the faces before the two plates are welded together in a fluid type manner. Moreover, with a few spaced welds between the plates and with the flush plate contact of the areas other than the grooves and/or welds, there are good heat transfer paths from the backup plate 46 in contact with the heating elements to the face plate 44. The overall press elemennthickness is adequate to give residual heat mass to avoid rapid cooling of the press head during the pressing cycle.

The press head construction further is quite effective in distributing steam for discharge from the press head as desired. It is noted that the distribution from the inlet fitting 60 is through the various passages including the longitudinal channel 50 and the cross channels 48, which develops moderate back pressure even when the head is open. The inlet feed of steam from a confinement in a pipe for example thus meets with some back pressure to preclude unlimited drop in steam pressure and the subsequent expansion and cooling which could even condense out the steam within the head even though the head temperature might be 400 F. This permits the desired and commonly used steaming or preconditioning of the garment before actually closing the head against the garment.

I claim:

1. A press head comprising a press element formed of adjacent press face and backup plates butted together along adjacent surfaces, a network of groove means formed on the adjacent surface of one of the plates, means sealing the plates together around the edges thereof and openings formed through the press face plate to the groove means network, the adjacent surfaces of the plates being flush against one another at all locations other than the groove means and means connecting the plates together at certain of these flush locations, external connection means for fluid to the groove means network, and means to heat the press element.

2. A press head according to claim 1, wherein the press face plate and backup plate each is formed of a highly conductive material such as aluminum.

3. A press head according to claim 2, wherein the means to heat the press element include electric strip heating elements held flush against the backup plate surface opposite the said adjacent surface thereof.

4. A press head according to claim 3, wherein the means for holding the electric strip heating elements include spacer bars connected to the said opposite surface of the backup plate at separated locations, a mounting plate secured to the spacer bars and thereby defining slots therebetween and the backup plate, the strip heating elements being received in the slots, and mounting bolts on the mounting plate effective to be tightened down against the heating elements for holding them against the backup plate.

5. A press head construction according to claim 4 wherein the press face plate and backup plate each is approximately to /2" thick so that the total press element formed by these adjacent plates is approximately /2 to 1".

6. A press head according to claim 5 further wherein the network of groove means is in the backup plate.

7. A press head according to claim 1, wherein the press face plate and backup plate each is approximately A to /2" thick so that the press element formed by these adjacent plates is approximately V2 to 1'' thick.

8. A press head according to claim 1, wherein the means to heat the press element include electric strip heating elements held flush against the backup plate surface opposite the said adjacent surface thereof.

9. A press head according to claim 8, wherein the means for holding the electric strip heating elements includes spacer bars connected to the said opposite surface of the backup plate at separated locations, a mounting plate secured to the spacer bars and thereby defining slots therebetween and the backup plate, the strip heating elements being received in the slots, and mechanical means on the mounting plate effective to be tightened down against the heating elements for holding them against the backup plate.

10. A press head construction according to claim 9, further having means for holding the press element that includes bolts secured in the mounting plate.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Davis 38-16 Radford 3816 Davis 3816 Beede 38-16 Freeman 38-16 X Freeman 38-66 GEORGE v. LARKIN, Primary Examiner 

